Cynically Sweet (Booklikes)

Journey is part one of a series by Mykl Walsh, telling the story of Lawrence Ronald Howard. To most, he seems ordinary, but Journey tells the story of his extraordinary life. Despite it being labelled as a "short story", I didn't feel like that was particularly appropriate; it's more a series of short stories.

I liked the beginning of the book and felt that it was an appropriate introduction. We start with an epic voyage to a new place, a few remnants of Earth and an archaeological dig to determine whether there was life on a desolate world. It was fascinating to me and I enjoyed the way the author looks back on SecretAgentMan as if it's some lost treasure. I liken many books to the same idea; what if a few thousand years from now, Earthlings discovered some lost copy of an important book from now? It would be considered a great find, no doubt. The same, I might consider, what book would you put in a time capsule if you were hoping that someone, a few millenia from now might read?

From there, we cut to the birth of Lawrence Ronald Howard who was born ten months from the death of Einstein. He's born into a reasonably large family, which only grows further once he's been born. His parents are concerned of his learning and development, unaware of how intelligent he really is. From then on, Mr. Howard goes on to greatness. The book tells of a few of his exploits, many of which are still to come. It also shares facts of the world and little titbits of knowledge. One thing I quite liked about the book (though my copy is a promotional version and I don't know whether properly released copies will have the same) is the little bits of paper tucked in between the pages. Some were little newspaper printouts and others were little relevant portions to the book. I felt it fascinating; it's like a little scrapbook that a person might collect.

Apart from Howard, we don't get much of a look into the other characters' lives, but I appreciate the views that we did get. For example, the parents; I liked that they were simply an ordinary family, with no particular (revealed) ambitions. It felt like they were more normal; that they weren't reaching for anything too great, they were simply just hoping that their family remained healthy and safe. I think my favourite characters overall were the ones in the future and I would have liked to read more about them and their findings.

Overall, I enjoyed the book and I would like to read more of the work.

I won a copy of this book via a First Reads giveaway and these are just my honest thoughts on it.